zdl_cryptofandomcom-20200214-history
Avalanche (AVA)
Basics * Proof-of-Stake blockchain using the Avalanche consensus mechanism. "A way to design public (and private) distributed ledgers for asset creation" * Private testnet was launched on 16-5-2019. * Should launch (22-11-2019) in December 2019. "“Ava is almost feature-complete with own codebase. We’re hoping to go public with a testnet soon, within the next month and mainnet sometime between December and February,” said Sirer." Tech * From the Athereum AMA (11-2019): "Ava plans to use a heterogeneous system design in which there are two major subsystems: # Avalanche -- for pure payment (like a super fast Bitcoin) # Snowman -- for other operations that need be fully ordered (this supports Aethereum/other chain mechanism, etc.) So in 1, there is really no such notion of "forks" because it is a partially ordered DAG which is merely used to accelerate voting. The consensus, however, does not depend much on such structural info of the DAG itself, but statistical info gathered from votes. In this sense, there is no "fork". For 2, as we're growing a chain, there could be some ephemeral little "forks" which are not marked as decided. In some sense, to end users, the only thing that matters is the decided chain that only grows consistently without flipping back and forth (with only negligible probability). To summarize, Avalanche is both replicated and naturally shared because it doesn't require total-ordered decisions. Snowman resembles those quorum-based protocols where the consensus is reached one after another." * From this CoinDesk interview with Sirer (16-5-2019): "Ava Labs also claims to have made another “breakthrough” like that Sirer says is just as revolutionary as Avalanche, but hasn’t been revealed until today. It boils down to this: in all blockchains launched thus far, all the nodes have to agree on certain criteria. All nodes utilize the same “scripting language” for smart contracts, for example. Ava, by contrast, offers a “heterogeneous network,” allowing nodes across the system to have different properties. Essentially allowing different groups in the network to “plug-and-play” different features. “This is a different type of a universe,” Sirer said, comparing Ava to other popular public blockchains like EOS and ethereum. “Ava has an interoperable framework, but then you have smaller and smaller universes of your own that have minimum properties.”" * From this CoinDesk interview with Sirer (22-11-2019): "Ava will be comprised of multiple different “subnetworks” able to be uniquely coded to support different types of decentralized applications (dapps). “Part of the interesting aspect of the Ava platform is that it gives you a very modular infrastructure for developing any kind of functionality you want,” said Kevin Sekniqi, chief protocol architect at Ava Labs. “When you launch a chain on Ava, you get this blank state where you can import any additional functionality like the ethereum virtual machine." As Sirer suggests, these independent blockchain worlds can be coded to host unique privacy guarantees, be compliant with regional laws, or fulfill specific data storage requirements. Such flexibility is what differentiates the platform from other blockchains that have come before it. While affirming that proof-of-stake was the superior consensus protocol, Sirer added that Ava is in a class of its own. “All of these PoS protocols that have been proposed today rely on the same foundation and that foundation has been poorly specified. It has many shortcomings compared to what PoW gives you out of the box,” said Sirer." Subnets * "AVA Labs Announces Athereum. Athereum is a “spoon”, or friendly fork, of Ethereum, which benefits from the Avalanche consensus protocol and applications in the Ethereum ecosystem" * "We want (11-2019) Athereum will be the first major subnet deployment on the Ava platform! Indeed we are hoping the greater Ethereum community takes this as an opportunity to test and improving the infrastructure. There have actually already been some conversations sparked from Athereum about performance improvements in the EVM!" Criticisms * Vlad Zamfir had a Twitter discussion with Sirer, outing his critisisms and saying Avalanche was not 'revolutionary'. Team, investors * Created by AVA Labs * Emin Gun Sirer * Kevin Sekniqi; chief protocol architect * "$6 million raised (16-5-2019) in February during a previously undisclosed funding round, when it won support from notable names in the venture capital and cryptocurrency spaces. These include Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Metastable, Initialized and Ramtin Naimi of Abstract Ventures." Category:Coins/Tokens